One Hell Of A Life Outdoor Podcast
The One Hell Of A Life Outdoor Podcast hosted by father-son duo Tony Vogel and Tristan Vogel, Owners of Zero Duck:30 and Zero Buck:30 . Our passion lies in bringing every hunter the REALITY of what it REALLY takes to hunt their target animal while equipping them with the knowledge to be a successful hunter and promoting the lost "old school values" that laid the foundation for the sport we love so much today.
One Hell Of A Life Outdoor Podcast
Finding Peace Through Hunting, Fishing, and Ironman Training | Zach Maddox
Zach Maddox shares his journey from firefighter to Ironman competitor and how outdoor pursuits saved his mental health while inspiring his mission to help fellow first responders and veterans heal through nature and community support.
• Former firefighter/paramedic who found healing through hunting and fishing after mental health struggles
• Currently training for Ironman triathlon to raise $500,000 for mental health treatment
• Lost 50 pounds through training while gaining mental clarity and purpose
• Created Healing Heroes guide company to take first responders/veterans hunting and fishing for free
• Works with Combat Vets to Careers helping military transition to civilian life
• Motivated by colleague's suicide to become more active in suicide prevention
• Emphasizes that outdoor activities provide therapeutic escape from daily stressors
• Connected with Eco Outfitters, a veteran-owned company focused on quality coolers at accessible prices
• Passionate about helping others find the same peace and healing he discovered in nature
Visit HookaHero.com/projectironmind to support Zach's mission to fund mental health therapy for first responders and veterans.
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I've been southbound. I've been hellbound riding on a midnight train Going too fast. Now think I'll slow down standing in the pouring rain.
Speaker 2:What's going on, guys? Tristan and Tony back with another episode of the One Hub Life Outdoor Podcast, and today we got Zach Maddox on. He's out of Florida. We actually met him at the Ducks Expo. They were right across, like kind of diagonal, from us at the Frog Talks booth. They were over there selling coolers with their company. It's Eco Coolers, correct.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir, eco Outfitters.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep. So we're excited to have Zach on. Zach's a hunter, obviously, and we were just talking on TikTok and I know he's doing this Ironman challenge and has this awesome charity stuff lined up. It's kind of an inspiration to hear about, honestly, so we're excited to dive into all that stuff. So, Zach, thank you for taking the time to join us. Man, Tell everybody a little bit about who you are and where you're from and all that. Yeah, First and foremost, who?
Speaker 3:you are and where you're from and all that. Yeah, I mean first and foremost, thank you all for having me. You know I really appreciate it. I feel honored. Yeah, my name is Zach Maddox. I'm here in north central Florida, born and raised about an hour and 15 from Orlando, hour 15 from Gainesville. We're centrally located, grew up hunting and fishing that's kind of like where I find a lot of my peace Was a fireman and a paramedic for seven and a half years.
Speaker 3:Now I work for the power company as a lineman. You know I do a lot of stuff. I'm on the board with Hookah Hero.
Speaker 3:They're a 501c3 that you know offer mental health services for first responders and veterans. That is 100, completely confidential and it's all free, um. So we do peer support, professional therapy and recreational therapy and I volunteer with another uh non-profit called combat vets to careers where they take combat veterans. Help them transition from, you know, combat vet to civilian life. You know, help sponsor them, get them a, get them a place to stay, figure out what's next with them for their career step. Help sponsor that. Get them in school, get them a job, get them back on their feet, because transitioning from active duty to civilian is pretty tough. I don't personally know that. I've got a lot of friends and family that are military and just seeing it, and they also got a lot of friends and family that are military, um, and just seeing it, and they also do a lot of the mental health stuff and uh. So yeah, between two nonprofits and work and hunting and fishing, I got a full plate on top of Ironman training now.
Speaker 3:So it sounds like it sounds like it sounds like a man.
Speaker 2:It's impressive. Uh, it's a lot of stuff to have on your plate. Um, I saw cause when I followed you on Instagram. I it's, I guess you. So you got your captain's license and you guide down there in Florida.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So, uh, when I left the fire department, um, I made a promise to all of my guys that if I couldn't be with you on the front line I'd fight for you on the sideline. So for me, battling a lot of my mental health stuff and having to kind of figure out a way to make myself sane again, um, I got back to my roots of hunting and fishing and it really there's something about the outdoors that is just healing for the soul. You know, like I, I I love to duck hunt for the, you know, the community and the friendship. I love to deer hunt because it heals my soul.
Speaker 3:You know that quiet in the woods, watching God's creation wake up my phone don't work, it's just me and nature. There's something about that quiet that really makes you deal with a lot of stuff. You know you've got a lot of time to think and pray For me. I spend a lot of my time praying, not just bring that big old bruiser my way, lord, but just a lot of self-reflection and a lot of thankfulness. I feel like for me the outdoors is a very humbling experience because you're like man, I am so small in this big old world. That's what brings me to it. So when I left the fire department I was like man, how healing this was for me. I need to do this for others. So I started a little healing heroes guide company where I got my captain's license.
Speaker 3:I started taking first responders and veterans hunting and fishing for free, because I was like look man man if I can get you, if I can get you to come out and experience what, what I can, what I experienced and what helped me, like that, that's a huge win. So we'll go frog snatching, we'll go. You know. Red fishing, we'll. We'll go catch shell crackers on on you know the the uh lake bank or something. It's just just being outside. I will go for a hike. You want to go walk through the trail? That's what we'll do. But I just find so much healing getting away from this concrete jungle we live in that more people need to experience it so well you know.
Speaker 4:And then, sorry, zach, I just want to jump in and just say one thing, just speaking from a veteran's perspective, and you know it's in the same thing as a firefighter, any first responder. There's so much camaraderie with that realm, you know, and even like professional sports, anything like that, as the team sport, that there's something like whenever you're out with you know, friends, men, women, in the outdoors, there's just nothing else going on. You know what I mean, yeah, and you really just get to breathe each other's spirits a little bit in in a big way, like you don't get to do when everybody's busy at home yeah you know what I mean.
Speaker 4:There's something there about that too that you know I think um is a very um. It's something that I think people that have that that camaraderie, need that feeling like that, because it's so elevated at what you do when it's really important does that make sense?
Speaker 3:no, yeah, well, so it's almost. Yeah, it's. You're always searching for that adrenaline, that that you know hyper focus, that you know next thing that's gonna get me going and, and you get that a lot with the pursuit of, you know, duck hunting or fishing or something. It's so distracting your mind because you're so focused on that goal of like being a caveman, like we're here to eat. You know what I'm saying the mortgage, don't matter, we can figure that out tomorrow. We're here to catch some fish. You know we're here, to.
Speaker 3:We're here to put some back strap on the table, baby. So that's that's. I think that you know you hit the nail on the head with that is is it's, it's giving me that drive. That's, I think that you know you hit the nail on the head with that it's, it's, it's, it's given me that drive again. It's given me that hyper focus, that that almost you know that adrenaline dump that you need. You know when you you got a group working the deeks, you know my heart's pounding. You know I'm hyper focused. You know that's something that you just don't. You know like that's the closest you'll get to going into a fire again. Yeah, you know is is you got that big buck coming by, or you, you got them. You know ducks working them, decoys and they're cupping in and you know the calls are. We're singing to him, baby, and there is working. You know that sweet love music. We're about to pull the trigger. It's, it's so fast, man, and it's it's just it gets you fired up yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2:You know, I think you brought up a good point too about like the mental, like clarity and peace and thinking and all that too. Because uh, there's so many times, especially as I get older, like I find myself like when I was younger it was just kind of like you don't really, you just take it for granted, you're just going hunting or whatever. But like the older I get get, the more I'm like I spend a Saturday out hunting or whatever and just driving back and forth, getting in the stand and just sitting there for hours, like being able to just think, and not even always just from the from the peace standpoint. That's a great, you know part of it. But just like I get ideas for stuff that I'm like man, I don't ever have time to think like this and I don't ever have time to think like this and I don't ever. That's why I don't ever think of anything.
Speaker 2:You know, it's like I feel like our culture because we're so busy and fast paced all the time, like we don't ever give ourselves time to like be bored and like think of stuff and get that peace, I guess, too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, we're surrounded by constant stimulation you know it's that, it's that truly. For me, it's like that. Only time you just get that, that quiet, yeah, real quiet, and you're like oh man, what is that?
Speaker 4:you know, yeah yeah, it's almost like impossible to think about something else whenever you're like in pursuit, you know, I mean, and it's the same thing like what, like I was talking about before, like professional sports, military, first responders, everybody when you a lot of people don't know what it's like to be so engaged in what you do mentally, that literally that's all you do.
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Speaker 4:So much of your time in life to what that professional thing is that you just it soul sucks you, buddy, and you just you give it all but that's who you are and that's okay. I don't care if you're an NFL athlete, same thing, you live it, breathe it, that kind of thing. And then whenever you get detached from that, I think that some of us that go through those and have those kinds of jobs and things like that or push ourselves that much it's even means even something deeper. Yeah, if that makes sense you know what I mean it's just for sure, it's just like you know.
Speaker 3:So well, it's like a. It's like a healthy obsession it is. You know, in my, my opinion, it might not be healthy on the bank account you know what I mean but to me it's a healthy obsession. Oh yeah, you're so right, it's just nothing else matters when it comes to that. No, it's something that it's. It's just such a good escape. It is something that we need.
Speaker 4:It is you know there's, and then you can eat meat yeah drink beer.
Speaker 3:If you drink beer and it's fabulous it is. I'm telling you, I don't think a bush light tastes better, unless it's three in the morning and a duck blind. Yeah, it's hard to beat.
Speaker 2:It is so hard to beat, that is so hard to beat that the only one that might be better than that is, uh, the post limit, bush light yes or the post deer bush light or picking up a 6 000 decoy spread at arkansas and 78 degrees with the sun beating down on you type of bush light.
Speaker 4:That's a really good one.
Speaker 3:I might need an IV for that one.
Speaker 4:My wife does IVs. I wonder if you can get bush light IVs.
Speaker 3:I don't know if I'd recommend that one. Oh dude.
Speaker 4:I wouldn't even let her stick me with anything, even if I'm dehydrated.
Speaker 3:Oh man.
Speaker 2:I wanted to ask Zach, so you know you were saying you're on the board with the 501C and I know you were when we were talking back and forth about the Ironman stuff Will you go into that a little bit? Because man, I think it's super impressive and I mean I know you were saying with the running and stuff, you've found a love for that and the running and stuff, um, you've found a love from that for that and you know you've lost 50 pounds.
Speaker 4:I mean, holy cow, you gotta be motivated. Yeah, I mean, yeah, dude, you're straight ripped.
Speaker 1:I saw you I saw you at the freaking show.
Speaker 4:I was like, yeah, I used to look kind of like man, I, I still got.
Speaker 3:I still got a little bit of my pouch left in my little. We still eating them. Christmas trees, don't, don't, don't, don't get that confused, but uh, yeah. So I kind of I kind of fell into this position with hooky hero. Uh, through eco we do a lot of charity events you know, kyle, the owner.
Speaker 3:He's a veteran, he's you know from, he was in the army and his motto is always be the first to give. You know, he I've never met somebody with such a big heart, is he? If somebody has a charity and they want to raise some money, he will donate some coolers for it, because he, wow, just believes in that. So we donated a bunch of coolers for they had a clay shoot and we went and kind of showed up and helped the event kind of met the board and everything, and at the time it is, I was really coming over the hill of, like, my mental health battles.
Speaker 3:So I'm, I'm doing really good, you know, I'm finding a lot of peace. I'm, I'm that ball's rolling. I'm, you know, help is happening. I'm feeling really good, a lot of peace is happening, I'm sleeping again and I just that's when I started the first time. I feel like I was called to. This was okay. There's a real need for this. Nobody needs to do this alone. You know there are so many more just like me that that needs some help. So I wanted to go the whole, you know, creating my own nonprofit, until I realized how difficult it is to start a nonprofit.
Speaker 3:It was just the just. The application was like 150 pages, wow, just to be a registered, a certified business is oh yeah that's way more difficult I looked and looked for an audible for somebody to read me the whole contract of this llc or the nonprofit thing, because I'm not reading 150 pages yeah ain't no way, I'm too bored and I don't understand all them words.
Speaker 3:so, yeah, yeah, it was kind of like, man, now I need people on the, you know, on the board we got to have, all these meetings we got to have. I was just super overwhelmed. Well, we went to that event and I ended up, you know, meeting the whole board of hook here and they're like, hey, you know, we really need a fireman on the board here because that's something we're lacking.
Speaker 3:I was like, okay, well, keep me in mind, I don't want to jump in anything yet, because I just got this idea. I don't want to be like, hey, I'm a board member and I have zero experience. I don't even know what to do. I was kind of intimidated. Then, a couple months later, I was like you know what? I can't get this out of my head. I really want to do this, I have the heart for it and I want to be surrounded by people that have the same passion as me. And so I was lucky enough and got elected onto the board as you know, the first fireman on the board for a while and immediately it was off to the races.
Speaker 3:We, you know, we're fundraising, we're doing all this stuff, but we're helping a lot of people, you know, throughout this process. So we get people will sign up as a nominee, or someone will sign someone up as a nominee and go, hey, I think they need some help, or we want to nominate them for a hero trip, because they're just outstanding people in this community and they deserve it. And so we get them coming through our CRM and get a sign and start reaching out to people. Hey, you know, this is my story, this is, this is who I am and I'm here for you. If you just need to talk, we'll talk.
Speaker 3:I don't need to force you into therapy. I don't want to force you into anything you don't want to do, because the biggest thing is I don't want to push you away. I want you to know that I'm here for match your energy. You want to put 50%, and I'll put 50%. And you want to do a hundred percent, I'll do a hundred percent. I'm here the whole time, whatever you need. So that is just. It's one of those things that just is. There's so much fulfillment just seeing one person get their life back and their family get their husband or, you know, their, their wife back, you know we're, we're putting, we're putting homes back together, is there?
Speaker 4:anything more important.
Speaker 3:At the end of the day your faith in your family is the only thing you got. That's right. Nothing else matters.
Speaker 4:At your worst day, they're the only people behind you, Just talk to somebody that doesn't have one, they'll let you know real quick. It'll help you real quick. So, yeah, it's that's awesome, though, man so we're full force on that.
Speaker 3:we're going through that. And uh, one of my co-workers, he uh passed away on memorial day. Uh, he committed suicide. Oh man, and uh it just it rocked us pretty bad. It was the first suicide in department history. So within 48 hours I was able to get a team put together and we were able to go into the department and start immediately counseling.
Speaker 3:And what hit home is I worked for this department, so all these people I'm talking to are my friends, and so that was very emotional for me because I know their spouses, I know their kids, I know their spouses, I know their kids, I know their parents. I know all this. So it really fired me up of like, what all can I do? How can I reach more people? How can we put more people through these treatments? Because immediately we started seeing people coming through like hey man, like DeMarkey and I were working through stuff together and now he's gone. I don't know what to do. We started seeing people coming through like, hey man, like you know, demarkey and I were working through stuff together and now he's gone. I don't know what to do. And it's like, well, let's. This is a huge tragedy, but we can pull a positive from this and we can grow stronger and learn from this. We don't need to, you know, be depressed At the end of the day day, as sad as it is.
Speaker 3:My friend made a decision and he made that decision to basically protect everyone else in his, in his mind is I, you know I'm. If I and the reason I know this is these are the thoughts that I had myself was, if I take myself out, everyone around me is going to do so much better because they're not worried about me anymore. I'm not dragging them down. I'm not that boat anchor. I'm not that person that's killing their mood or causing them depression or anxiety. I am the weak link. If I'm gone, everyone else is going to succeed.
Speaker 3:So I don't think badly at all. I hurt because I wish I could have gotten there prior to this and we could have maybe changed this and help this. But at the end of the day, when you have alpha mentality people, when they make a decision, it is so hard to get them to change their mind because decisions made, it's done. So I truly believe he made the decision that he had the most peace about, as much as it kills us and hurts us. You know, I can't, I can't falter him for that. I wish I could have helped, but I couldn't, so I can't help him anymore. But I can help everyone around him, you know, and we and we can talk about this and be like, hey, you know, don't?
Speaker 3:think this was a selfish decision and and save others and yeah, and and bring some peace and go. Hey look, this happened. But this, this was never meant to hurt anybody. So if you're having these thoughts, we can fix this, because I want you to know how you feel right now and I want you to embrace how you feel right now and write it down how I feel terrible. I wish this would have never happened. And when you're having your bad days, remember all those thoughts, because that's what everybody around you is going to think.
Speaker 3:If you take yourself out, if we could see the aftermath of suicide, we'd never do it. I think if you take yourself out, if we could see the aftermath of suicide, we'd never do it. No, we would never. Ever do it. Because we finally realized oh, they need me more than I need me, you know. So the biggest thing is we have to have a reason why why not? You know why am I not going to do this? Because you don't have to value your life. That is fine. You have to value the reason why you keep going, because we're all going to have.
Speaker 4:You were brought in. You were brought here. There are people that raised you, loved you. You know all those things and that you speak on it. So that's the toughest thing, you know. I think everybody at some point in our lives, unfortunately, we've had somebody, a friend or something that's happened to you lives, unfortunately we've we've had somebody, a friend or something that's that's happened to you and, um, you know it's, it's, it's so hard to imagine but it creates so much more pain for the people for years to come not having them. You know, and that's the tough thing to to deal with.
Speaker 2:You know it's, it's so tough I couldn't even imagine, not not knowing, somebody was thinking that too. You know what I mean like it's gotta be so hard being being afterwards, being a friend or, you know, a family member, and being like I didn't even realize. You know, because like you said a lot of these people you know are type a and you know are strong people and you know would never let. Don't want to let it on to people you know. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And the bit is like I don't want to. I don't want to talk to you about what I'm dealing with because I don't want to bring you into my world of chaos.
Speaker 3:So I'm trying to protect you and be like hey, I'm doing great, or it makes me look weak, or I'm scared of't have my partner not have trusted me to know that, hey, if something happens today, I need you on your a game. If I'm telling you, hey, I'm not mentally doing okay and you, we lose trust, well, that's going to be in the back of your head Every single time we run a call. Is man, I, man, I'm, I know I've got a job to do, but I'm worried about him and we don't want that. And what's terrible is that we need to be able to talk about it and go hey, man, look, if you need a break, let's take a break, because your, your health is worth more than anything to me.
Speaker 3:But trust takes a lifetime to gain and seconds to lose, and people are just so scared of losing that and a lot of active duty. Guys have special clearance, you know. And if they say, hey, I'm not doing, okay, that's have special clearance, you know. And if they say, hey, I'm not doing, okay, that's gone, your career's gone, so we can't talk about you know. That's.
Speaker 4:That's what we need to change is to be like, and I know it's such a good that we're talking about it tonight because it needs to be it needs to be spoke of, because just that one person that's brave enough to say, hey, hey, man, I need this. You know what I mean. I just need somebody, somebody that relates to me, cause you know that, saying, you know, I've done all a lot of bad, a lot of bad in my life. I'm I'll be straight up about that, I'm no freaking, you know, angel, angel, I think we've all went through some shit, okay, but the point point is is that if you're a decent person, you are your own worst critic and the guilt that comes with that. I never wanted to do a damn thing wrong in my entire life. Honestly, most of the dumb things I've done have been related to, you know, drinking hard, hard liquor, you know so you know, I, so you know, I mean honestly, I mean.
Speaker 4:I could drink some bush lights, bro, but and not be dumb. But that stuff makes me dumb. So you know, you learn your own weaknesses and you're your own worst critic. You know, there's been times where my wife wanted to punch me in the jaw and I wanted to punch him. I wanted to cut my leg off before listening to her try to punch me in the jaw.
Speaker 4:I mean, I'm just. I'm just saying but I hate to make fun of that, I'm just saying in that position. Getting back to serious, you are your own worst critic and people don't realize that. I think sometimes that that person that's dealing with that pain, whatever you're telling, whenever they're saying hey, you did this wrong, you did that wrong. Life's not that way, it's this way you're. You already know all that and you're already stuffing all that in. You know what I'm saying I.
Speaker 3:I used to make the joke is you can't hurt my feelings because I promise you'll never say anything. That's worse than what I tell myself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, I'm my own worst enemy. Yeah, I did. And the I think the biggest thing is we got to stop listening to the garbage in our head, because it's not true. Once you realize, once you quit giving that power and you silence those demons in your head, your life becomes better. The negative self-talk and I don't believe I'm good enough for anything and the no confidence thing. Once we start getting rid of that and taking small steps to getting rid of that, your life becomes so much better. And I'm speaking from experience. I am, I was, I promise you the most non-confident, you know, self-sabotaging person you've ever met in your life. Yeah, you know, I, literally you. You could not hurt my feelings because I tell myself every morning you are the biggest piece of shit I've ever met. You know like literally. And you know I've started to get away Like so, ironman, you know like that is.
Speaker 3:There's two sides to that whole project. The number one is obviously raising money for mental health therapy, like treatments. None of this, none of that is ever Nothing is lining my pockets. Right, this is costing me a ton of money, but what I'm gaining out of this is for my mental health and it's showing myself that I'm setting goals. I'm reaching these goals and I'm, you know, getting these small wins every day, that I'm gaining confidence in myself, knowing that there's nothing that can come my way, that I cannot do and that, for my mental health, has been unbelievable.
Speaker 3:So this whole journey of me just suffering, you know, to, throughout this whole training process getting up at three in the morning to, you know, ride my bike or do a run before having to leave for work at five in the morning and getting home late and not getting any sleep do all this, all of that is just, it's just a test for me, but it's also is like I want people to be like man. This guy is just insane for doing this. So if he can do something hard, maybe I can do something hard and get some help, you know, because, because getting help is way easier than getting up at three in the morning to run five miles.
Speaker 3:You know, like you know it's. It's way easier than you know. Running a full marathon after biking 112 miles, like getting getting help is as easy as going.
Speaker 3:Hey, I need help, that's easy, but it's convincing yourself of, like I'm going to stop listening to that garbage lies in my head and I'm going to get help and we're going to get better. And I cause I have a reason why I'm not going to kill myself. I have a reason to live and to be better. And a lot of people it's their kids, it's their wife, it's their dog. I mean everybody has different reasons, but it's just find that reason to stick to it. Start your day with small wins, man. Make your bed and be like okay, we started. We're starting today with positivity. We've made a win. That's great. And if you want to go for a run or something, that's great, because I promise you what's going to happen. The rest of the day Didn't suck as bad as that five miles did. Yeah, you know, like you can't hurt me, and not for nothing. It's hard to have bad thoughts when you're struggling to breathe.
Speaker 3:You're like oh yeah, you know, like yeah, tristan, you know, you just PR your, your, your run the other day like you're pushing, you know, and like that sucks, it sucks the whole time, but the reward at the end is so great.
Speaker 2:Oh, dude, and I was one of the things I surely you feel this way like and uh, I would imagine tell guys about it. But like the whole fitness thing, like in mental health, like that, I mean to having that win and just the endorphins, just biologically what happens when you like do a hard workout, I mean it's great. It's great stuff you know for, for mental health too, you know it's.
Speaker 3:It is the best antidepressant I've ever taken. Yeah, you know, and I'm not. That that's what's so. Yeah, you know, and I'm not. That's what's so. Funny is, like anyone that knows me, I'm not a fitness person. I'm more like fitness cheeseburger in my mouth.
Speaker 2:Kind of yeah Right.
Speaker 3:You know I'm, I'm running to the buffet line dog. I ain't running for fun. If I'm running someone's chasing me, you better be running. That's who I've been my whole life. But you know just really this once you come so close to taking your own life and you realize how sweet life is, you know and you're like OK, what can I do to be better today? How can I be better and how can I be better to you know, maybe like motivate somebody or be a mentor to somebody. And that was something you know I really struggled with was you know I'm, I'm here to try to. I've got to mentor people that are broken, but I'm just as broken. You know how do I do? I'd almost feel like a fraud. I'm like, how can I tell you hey, this is what you need to do to get help, but like I need help too.
Speaker 2:Well, it's hard to like pour into other people's cup when your cup's not full, kind of thing you know yeah.
Speaker 3:See, I'm I'm very good at that. I'm so good at helping others and not helping myself. You know that that's where this whole thing is. I want to help others, but I want to help myself too, because completing this Ironman is the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life. But it's it's showing myself and building that confidence in myself that I can do anything, you know. So it's it's. It doesn't have to be an Ironman, it doesn't have to be, you know, an ultra marathon. It doesn't have to be anything crazy hard, like figure out if walking down the street is hard, like do it, and then, once you finish that, you're like, man, look what I just did, I'm so proud of myself. Let's, let's do something else, yep, and it doesn't. It doesn't even have to be fitness, it just set a goal, any kind of goal Like so this year I decided that I want to do a full year sober.
Speaker 1:I quit dipping, I quit drinking.
Speaker 3:You know I've. I want to try to be as healthy mentally, physically and spiritually as possible.
Speaker 2:And it's been an incredible journey.
Speaker 3:You know it is hard to pass up a cold bush lighter now.
Speaker 1:I promise you that.
Speaker 3:You know, but I'm just, I'm trying to just build as strong of a pillar as I can so that I can. It doesn't matter what you throw at me, I can help you. Yeah, like I just want to help others. That's, that is my whole life goal. That's, that's my calling. I'm, I'm nothing special. I'm a below average person with an above average calling. That is all it is.
Speaker 2:That's awesome Way, awesome way to say it it is.
Speaker 3:I just and I'm glad I'm glad it's like this, because that's what keeps you motivated is I can't quit because I got too many people counting on me. Yeah, you know, I, I my, my brothers that are passed before me. If I quit, it's like I'm quitting on them, and september 11th just happened and I got 343 reasons to keep going yeah you know right, that's how I look at it that's.
Speaker 2:That's a great, great point. Man, um man, I can't even like just the, the stuff that's got to go into training for the iron man stuff, and obviously being being sober, you know, not influencing your training, I'm sure helps a lot too. Uh, well, you go into a little bit of that because I don't even really know, like what all you got to do to prepare for that and like what's the the challenge?
Speaker 4:of it um it's like the, the iditarod for men and yeah it.
Speaker 3:So if I'd have known what all went into this, I don't know if I would have chosen it I think, I think the ignorance of this is really a strong point.
Speaker 3:So for anyone who doesn't know, a full Ironman triathlon is a 2.4 mile swim and then you get out of the water and you bike 112 miles and you get off the bike and you run a 26.2 mile marathon and that's your day. You finish, congratulations, you are now an Ironman. It's 140 miles total. Point two mile marathon. Wow, and that's that's your dad. You finish, congratulations, you're an iron man. It's 140 miles total and you've got 17 hours to do it. And the top athletes in the world do it in like eight hours. They're insane. So for me, you know, mr, 285 pound of twisted steel and debbie little debbies you know, like it was a hard.
Speaker 3:I'm not a runner, you know. I'm not a cyclist. I love to swim. I didn't realize how terrible I am at swimming until you do something like this. So, uh, first things first. I signed up for a sprint triathlon. It was the shortest one, it was 400 meter swim, eight mile bike and a 5k at the end. And I just signed up for it. I didn't have a bike, I didn't have running shoes, I didn't train at all. I was like you know, if I don't sign up for this, I'm never going to do it. So I just started learning. I fell in love with that. I thought it was amazing.
Speaker 3:I got to feel like an athlete again. You know, like high school baseball, I peaked, you know. I'm like, oh yeah, I think I'm pretty good. And then, you know, I feel like I get to be an athlete again and get to train. So I hired a coach because I don't know anything about this, and so he's sending me my workouts every day.
Speaker 3:So my day starts at about three 15 in the morning. I've either got a bike, a swimmer run for that day. So it's, you know, either to start out like a 45 minute run or, you know, an hour long bike or 1800 meter swim, and it's just, we're constantly building up because you got to put miles on your body to get some strength. You know we're going to get hurt if not. So it's six days a week, usually. One rest day, um every week or every 10 days. So every single day we got something going on and then I try to post my workouts.
Speaker 3:So people were like, okay, you know, hold myself accountable. People see, like, okay, he's holding himself accountable, he's actually doing what he's saying. He's doing so because my biggest thing is I don't want anybody to like support this and think that this your, your contribution is going to. You know, to pay for Disneyland. You know, like that is not it at all. So it's learning how to swim, it's learning how to run, it's learning how to bike. You know, like, how you're supposed to swimming. Growing up in Florida, like I've, I knew how to swim at 18 months. You know I was. I didn't have floaties, I was swimming. I've always loved the water. I've always been in the water. I almost drowned my first three races what wow?
Speaker 4:like literally 400 it's quarter, quarter mile, it's, it's not so far it it is, but it is for me to do off the street not swimming would be hard dude, when I swam to the bank over at lake lanier that was probably only like a third of that. Yeah I just started side stroking to get there that's where we're talking.
Speaker 3:Like the ignorance comes in. I'm like that's not bad at all, like I can do that. Are you kidding me? And it literally came down to I'm putting my feet down, if I don't touch I'm drowning, and that it was a fight. But like, these events are safe. They have people in boats and kayaks and float you know flotation devices to give you. But I was like I'm not gonna be that guy. Yeah right, I'm not. You know I'm not swimming over and be like hey, I'm about to drown, where's my, my arm swimmies, you know, like I'm like I'd rather drown than be that guy. So that's just this stupid in me. You know it was like look I, if we're gonna keep, we're just keep swimming, we're gonna keep paddling and if we go down, we go down. But at least we did something we wanted to do you know so.
Speaker 2:So when? When is uh, so you've been training, how long you've been training, and when is the like, the actual event, the big event?
Speaker 3:okay. So I've been hitting it hard for three months, okay, and every single day other than you know, like my rest days. Um, my main full event is next november in panama city, florida. It's the ironman panama city I've got. I race, like these local races, about one every two weeks or once a month, just to it's. It's a practice day, it's to see where your training's at.
Speaker 3:You know how, okay, we've gotten a little faster here. We need to work on this. We need to work on, like, transition zones, because when, as soon as you start the swim and you get out of the swim, you got to go and transition into jumping on the bike and going, so you have to make sure everything's set up correctly. Then, when you come back, you got to park your bike a certain way, get your running shoes on, get all that, and you're trying to do that as fast as possible because you want the obviously the least amount of time as possible. So you know, all of those races are just teaching moments.
Speaker 3:You know, like I just had a race on sunday and I failed miserably by just stupid little things. I did, I did great, I did my best time, but like I froze my water bottles so that I could have cold water on the bike. But I bought these new insulated water bottles so they were frozen solid, oh no. So I'm five miles into this ride and I'm like man, I really need some water. It was a chunk of ice, so super dumb. I used brand-new running shoes. I don't wear socks on these races because obviously your feet are wet coming from the swim, so I've got cycling shoes that are supposed to be made for this. I brand new running shoes, not broken in.
Speaker 2:I've got massive blisters on my feet from trying to run that, so let, let me ask you this real quick, because I, I'm like, I'm one of those dudes, I'm like I, I joke, it's like thick boy running club, like I well, you know, you know where you're coming from oh yeah so I chafe bad dude, so like that's got to be a hurdle that you gotta. I mean, how do you hey?
Speaker 3:they make this stuff called nut butter. Yeah, and it's incredible it's like vaseline and I lather in it, dude, because hey, you know that old joke like your mama's so fat when she walks her thighs, go, excuse, excuse me, pardon me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, boy, you know.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm trying to make this as less miserable as possible. So, yeah, I lather up in it all over.
Speaker 1:Okay, and it works so great it gets you some.
Speaker 3:I'll send you a link. It's amazing.
Speaker 2:It's cheap.
Speaker 3:It works super good, but oh yeah, that's a huge thing because you're wet the whole time. So yeah dude, I would be dying yeah you should try one. I'm telling you, there's so much fun, so there's so much fun I would love to.
Speaker 2:So, um, I got into orange theory because, well, my wife was going to it and I was kind of just like bouncing around, you know, just working out at the gym, like nothing like consistent you know.
Speaker 2:And uh, I've like fell in love with, like you said, being kind of training to be an athlete again because, like like today, you know, there's always different workouts, but like today it was like two point six miles in total and running, and then another like half an hour and like different, like hit lifting type stuff. So it's just like all this hybrid kind of athlete type stuff that I love. But they have a thing this month called the dry try and it's like their little, you know, and it's basically like a 1400 meter row. It's not like that crazy compared to what you're doing, but it's like a 1400 meter row, a certain amount of mileage, and then like there's all body weight exercises and you have to it's in the teens that morning and maybe you're chasing ducks or geese, but now it's September and it's 85 degrees and you're hunting early teal or geese.
Speaker 4:As a waterfowler, you need dependable weather protection that will not break the bank. Founded in 1996, FrogTogs is not only the leader in breathable wader technology, but a company you can depend on to keep you warm and dry head to toe, no matter your hunting environment.
Speaker 2:I like a certain amount of body weight exercises, but I think I'm going to do that, but that's nothing compared to what you're doing.
Speaker 3:I mean, yeah, but you can't always compare to because, like there are people that do double Ironman, you know where it's literally two Ironmans can sit, you know. To me that's crazy.
Speaker 4:My cousin Steve did it, did he? I think he did, I think he or it was. If it wasn't that, it was like I don't know. Even if it wasn't that, it was something that I was like when I was in my prime. I was like he dedicated his life to it, like shaved his head and everything and and dude, he, he, freaking, did it whatever it was, and I was just like jesus. I would never be able to do what he did, whatever the. It might have been iron man.
Speaker 4:Well, you're bald, so I mean you're halfway well, yeah aerodynamic, you don't even need a swim compared to this in high school with the mullet I had bro and the mustache that's a lot of I had serious drag and the mach Mach 1 Mustang.
Speaker 3:Oh, dude, yeah, we used to go down to the Shake Shack Taco Bell parking lot burnouts with an S10. Let's go.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:That's funny, man Can I?
Speaker 4:give it up for S10 burnout. Come on, tell us a little bit, zach.
Speaker 2:You were saying you were wanting to raise money. Tell us about what that's for, like what, how people can help support that and like okay, yeah, the all the, the mission behind that, yeah so the goal is 500,000 and if it's good, if it takes me five years, it takes me five years.
Speaker 3:I'm just gonna keep doing hard stuff and trying to raise money for this. So the hookah, hero and combat vestia careers is the two main that I want all the money to go to, because we're those are the ones that are putting all the people through therapy that we use. So, like we're doing ketamine therapy with combat vets, we're doing you know hero trips. We're doing you know therapist to patient kind of therapy, professional therapy if you will. Well, all of that stuff is very expensive. So just one hour of therapy per nominee like veteran first responder, whoever, it's $150 an hour. A hero trip is $500 per person and the ketamine treatments for their six sessions is like $3,600. So it's very expensive to get help, but I don't want anybody to have that financial stress on themselves to get help.
Speaker 3:I want to let's make this as smooth as possible because, like, what is it? What are your biggest stressors in life, your home life, your finances, your job? Like, let's take. Let's take those completely out of the question Right now. Let's focus on what we need to do well, that takes a lot of money and to help people. It's like eating healthy. Eating healthy is expensive. Any of our hobbies it's expensive, right? If someone would tell you hey, do you want to go duck hunting? I'll pay for everything. Just come with me.
Speaker 4:Every time I go, you're going to be like, of course, yeah, yeah, of course, right, right, so that's kind of I'd go with you every time. You ask me too if we were going to waffle house. Oh, absolutely, are you kidding me, bro? I'll be. Oh, yeah, yeah, I'll get two great duck cutting man, let's go 500, 000 sounds like a lot, but I don't.
Speaker 3:I don't ever like, I don't want people to think of this as dollar signs. I want I want you to think of it as people like you're sponsoring people. So, yeah, dude, if it's just a dollar, like if you can afford to give one dollar, that I can't ask for anything more. You can give 25 cents. It all adds up and it's all going to help someone, you know. Yeah, so we launched project iron mind. We have a page on hookyherocom with all the links, and then Operation Field Trip, which is the ketamine therapy through the combat vets careers To do the donation, hookyherocom under the Project Iron Mine.
Speaker 3:We have a donation page there. It's all through 501c3. So if you want to make a donation and you want the tax exemption, we can send everything to you and just know, like, every single dollar raise is going to someone. It's not going to pay for a new trailer. It's not going to go pay because we need to get shirts to sell at the clay shoot, like it is going strictly to therapy.
Speaker 3:That is the whole reason that I'm doing this and if one single dime doesn't go to therapy, I'm cutting it. I'll find somebody else, but I have the faith and the integrity into these organizations that I'm putting my name on, to know that that is never going to be a question, because the people I'm surrounding myself only want to help, because we've all been through it. We've all lost our friends, we've all lost family, we've all almost lost ourselves, and we know what it takes to get healthy. And it's a long road. It's hard, yeah, that's. That's why I like. Yeah, iron Man's hard. But getting help is the hardest thing I've ever done, because you have just opened yourself to be so vulnerable to all the attacks because everyone, oh, you can't handle it, you can't. I'm making a decision to better myself and my family. I don't care what you think.
Speaker 4:Dude, I think that's why it's such an impact on you, with God himself, honestly. I mean, I remember a pastor one time saying you know, sometimes God will shake the ground you walk on to get your attention. But he was talking about the sanctification process, how it's different for everybody. But he was talking about the sanctification process, how it's different for everybody and me I needed. He dropped a big, giant hammer on me to get my attention where others, like my brother, he was like, yeah, I'm going to church. It was that easy, you know. Whatever, I think that that's an important part of that. You know, it's the same, it's the exact same feeling, but I think that that's an important part of that. You know, it's the same, it's the exact same feeling, if that makes sense.
Speaker 3:You know that is some I've struggled with for so long was so I'm a preacher's kid? Oh yeah, my dad's a Baptist preacher, independent fundamental. But I had a terrible drug problem growing up. I got drugged to Sunday school drugged growing up I got drugged to sunday school drug do sunday morning drug to sunday night, you know tuesday visitation.
Speaker 4:Wednesday, friday business what the nomination, if you don't mind, uh, baptist independent fundamental baptist.
Speaker 3:We we had the buffet every sunday. You know, I'm saying we got that bad this potluck.
Speaker 3:That's why I was in the husky khakis, you know as a kid. But I struggle with that because I'm just, I'd ask god. I'm like why do I? Why am I, why do I have to go through all this? Like, why is my? Why is everyone around me? Their their lives are so much easier, why am I constantly hitting roadblocks? And it finally hit me. It's to build me to where I am now to be a voice for those that don't have one. And I'm thankful, like I struggled for so long. But I'm so thankful I struggled because it gave me the passion I have today and what?
Speaker 3:What turned it around for me was I was talking to a pastor and I was just venting to him. I was like I'm just, I don't know what to do. I'm so miserable, I'm so stressed. And he said John 16, 33 in this world we have troubles, but take heart, I have overcome the world. And I just started crying and I was like you know who am I to figure this out by myself, because clearly it isn't working right. You know why not? Why not take all your problems and all your life decisions and give it to the person who's already done it, yeah who's already under that, bro.
Speaker 3:So the day I chose to do that, my life got so much better. Yeah, it's because I don't have to stress over it anymore. Yeah, you know, we find ourselves in our lives stressing over small things that don't matter, that literally don't matter. They matter right now. Things that don't matter that literally don't matter, they matter right now, but they don't matter a week from now. You know I don't want to miss that sale at Target. You know I'm stressing out. We got to go to Target and get this toilet paper that's on sale. It don't matter.
Speaker 4:Right, right, right, right. Well, just, I wanted to go full circle back on why I was saying brought that up is just that you know you were talking about how. Why I was saying brought that up is just that you know you were talking about how. You know it's so hard to admit to somebody your faults. You know what I mean you. It's humbling, right, it really is. And so you do the same thing with God, and that's where I was going to kind of like how those two things connect is that it takes you there and usually with somebody does do that, and somebody is going to, you know, like you, us, anybody that is a decent person is going to reach their hand out and help that person. It's a life-changing experience, you know, and that's the tie I was trying to make with all that. We can be that piece of the pie as people, but nobody's kicked me harder than teeth, and God has. Oh, buddy, or I mean.
Speaker 4:I kicked myself in than teeth and God has or I mean I kicked myself in the teeth. Actually, he gave me new teeth.
Speaker 2:I'm just kidding. Have you heard of anything that, like Mike Dragic, is doing up in Jacksonville?
Speaker 4:I'm happy you brought that up.
Speaker 2:Or the church of 1122. Any of them up there.
Speaker 3:I, yeah, so I actually watch that podcast. Single snow Like every Sunday I watched the church. Yeah, there, I, yeah. So I I actually watch that podcast. Like every single snow, like every sunday, I watch the church. Yeah, yeah, yeah, uh.
Speaker 1:Joey martin pastor joey, be a man.
Speaker 3:I love that I love that guy the reason I bring that up.
Speaker 2:So me and my wife actually our first date was technically to what's up? Guys, if you want coffee that doesn't suck, you probably can guess what I'm going to say get the duck. Dirty duck coffee is the official coffee of the one of life outdoor podcast, and they have a great lineup of different coffee blends, everything from morning wood and first flight to dark dynasty and sun's up guns up. You can't go wrong with dirty duck coffee. And they have a great lineup of cold brew cans mocha, french vanilla original cold brew and cinnamon tail snickerdoodle. If you want 15% off your next order, use code one hell of a life 15 on your next order 1122.
Speaker 2:So we um we got like coffee and like when you know, stuff, like outside of that. But our like first like date date was because basically what had happened was we uh started talking on bumble and she was like she was new to jacksonville or whatever and uh I told her, you know, I went to church there and long story short, she went a couple weeks later, hit me up and she loved it. That's not the point of the story. The point of the story is that I I love that church and I still even up, even up here in Atlanta, I haven't connected to a church the same way as I did at 1122 and the way Pastor Joey Martin is. But they got a podcast called Built for More and they had Mike Dragas on the podcast and he has a. My dad actually used to serve with him at church.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we worked on a security team together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's a combat veteran and a lot of the similarities like what you guys do. It sounds a lot like his mission too. He has an organization called Project Savior Outdoors.
Speaker 4:Specifically geared at saving Marines from committing suicide.
Speaker 2:Well, not just Marines veterans.
Speaker 4:Well, I mean, but it came targeted because it was an outstanding number of people in his battalion.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 4:That committed suicide, and it's a great organization.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and my whole, my whole point with that is he was just on their podcast last week it's called the Built for More pod and he was saying that you know and you touched on this earlier, so I want to bring it up Is that hunting? Is he? Hunting is a vehicle to change lives through god, through peace, through all these other things. That's all like. That's the whole reason you're taking people to guide or your free guided hunts. You know it's a vehicle to bring somebody peace right yeah, so I just thought you know that's a guy you should definitely check out.
Speaker 4:Who knows, maybe you guys can network, network. You guys will be skydiving together in a week. I, I can see you guys are. You guys are built the same brains, are the same. Mike's a great person, an incredible human being. I wish him the best. And man it's. It's so cool to see somebody that you know. That's so darn genuine, like you really know that person, like I. Of course I'm not like super. I not going to say we were best friends, I'm not going to claim that, but I'm just saying I knew Mike very well at the church every Sunday.
Speaker 2:You guys duck hunted together, yeah dude.
Speaker 4:I took him on his first duck hunt a veteran hunt, you know so. You know genuinely a great person and you know he's just. He's inspired so many lives. He's given so much. He helped so many people in North Carolina. He was taking chainsaws, flying chainsaws out to people in a helicopter. I mean the guy catches alligators. He beat people up for God.
Speaker 2:His thing is called a blue collar brawler.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I guess I think he's still active. I don't know. He's like an MMA fighter. But he's also, you know, does all this terrible work too. Dude, he hates pigs.
Speaker 4:He hates pigs. He's got incredible NRA rights and just an incredible my point is incredible person and I totally could see you two like like you guys are cut from the same cloth, bro he actually just started a uh created a ranch called blue collar creek or something and what
Speaker 2:he's going to be able to do is like you might want to hit him up because like I think he's opening, putting like dorms and stuff on there, so like if you want to go and host an event there, like you can basically bring your group and stay in the you know spots. And then I think there's like pig hunting and turkey hunting and stuff it does is he taking applications for like best friends?
Speaker 1:because I'm gonna just reach out to him. I'm gonna build one out it sounds, sounds like dude.
Speaker 4:He's like we could be so awesome he deserves his family and he's blessing so many other people and saving lives, but he deserves everything that God is giving him right now, because he truly like when I talk to him about and I'm going to give you shit about this, mike I talk about getting him on the podcast. He's like, bro, listen.
Speaker 2:We have had him on once.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah. But I felt like the last time we talked about it he was so damn honest with me. He was like dude, listen, and it was something crazy. Like this he goes. I just went to Disney World, went and hunted with Ted Nugent, went to Africa, killed a pig, came back killed an alligator and now I'm home. But it wasn't anything like that. But his schedule is so busy and most of that time is giving. I mean, it's just giving, whether it's to his organization or somebody else. He's an incredible dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but just the whole point of bringing that up is there's a lot of similarities.
Speaker 3:We want you guys to meet. What y'all do? Oh yeah, I'd love to.
Speaker 2:I'm curious with the taking people out. Zach, is there a favorite story that you've had, or just like a favorite moment where, like you know, you're like man? This was like why I do this, you know.
Speaker 3:So the one that immediately came to mind was I did a youth hunt.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:And it was like, veteran and first spawner aside, and I didn't know this guy. You know a buddy of mine. He hosts a youth hunt every year for like ducks unlimited. He asked me hey, he's like, hey, I need a boat, do you, would you mind taking someone out? And I said absolutely. So I came out, I met him, come to find out, like we have so many friends in common.
Speaker 3:His son is. He was six or seven at a time. I, you know I could be wrong of exact age, but he was wanting to kill his first duck. Well matt, his dad killed his first duck at like eight years old or something and I maybe he was seven, something like that. He's a year prior from when his dad killed his first duck and his whole mission was I want to kill a first duck before my dad killed his first duck. So we had a 20, he had a 20 gauge, we had a setup, we had all the decoys set out and this was the most electric day I've ever had duck hunting wow, and it was it was awful because we couldn't shoot at all.
Speaker 3:It was a youth hunt, you know. But it was so amazing because this was an area where it's nicknamed the zoo because it is there's a million boats and you're getting steel shot ran down on you and it's. It's crazy. But on youth hunt it was a little less busy but there's so many birds and for these birds to come and just land in the decoys and just sit there and just swim around is unheard of. Wow, wow. So within I don't know 15 minutes of shooting light, we had a teal drop in sit at the decoys. He killed his first duck and he was so excited and I'm sitting here shaking. I was like this is the most incredible thing I've ever seen and his dad goes. His dad stopped everything and goes. You know what we do when we get a kill we thank god for giving it to us and I started crying I was like this was the most unbelievable moment I've ever had in my life.
Speaker 3:I was like if I could do this every day. This was so electric. That was my favorite hunt to this day. And then, what's funny is my wife's in anesthesia school and she was working in the OB unit and she did the epidural for his wife on their newest kid.
Speaker 2:No way.
Speaker 3:He saw her name tag. He goes Maddox, do you know, zach Maddox, she goes. Yeah, that's my husband, he goes. He took my son so he could kill his first duck. It's nice to meet you. She texted me. She's like you. You know, she texted me. She's like you know this guy. I was like, yeah, oh yeah, we took, you know, we went hunting together. Yeah, super small world. So she, you know, she was in there when his newest child was born and and that's what it was. Just I and he said, well, you got another one to take duck hunting. I said I can't wait, you know, but it was just, it was such a, it was such a, it was such a god morning yeah of like I couldn't have planned this.
Speaker 3:I'm not a good duck hunter. I'm terrible at it, you know, and you would think that I mean I was the world's best you know, and like thankfully, you know, matt, he's, he's a big duck hunter and stuff and he's you know. We collaborated and figured out what we want to do and how to set up the decoys, but it was just, it was so perfect, like you couldn't draw it up any better but it was just it.
Speaker 3:It tugged them heartstrings, just unbelievable. But on the other side of the first responder thing, the biggest thing I learned when it comes to that is it's not about the hunting or fishing, how good it is's, it's about just being on the water and having that peace Cause I would stress out really bad. You know, I'm taking a guy and I'm like, hey man, this dude needs a electric day. We got to catch more fish, we got to kill more ducks, we got to have the greatest frog snatching trip ever, because that's what he needs. And then I'm stressed out and I can't enjoy it and just to get told, hey man, I don't know why you're stressed out. It, this isn't for this isn't about hunting or fishing. For me this is just peace. And I just went. I was like, thank you, I needed that because that brought me back to reality, because when I was getting healing it wasn't about the hunting or the fishing, it was about the healing.
Speaker 3:And it brought me back to reality and humbled me a little bit of going. No need to stress, man, this is just a good day.
Speaker 2:This is all this is.
Speaker 3:It's just a good day. So that that's. That was my biggest takeaway from you know, being able to do this and being able to have support is it's not about results, it's not, it doesn't matter. You could catch a little panfish and it'd be the greatest day in the world to somebody, because that's not what they're out there for. That's right. You know, sometimes we get lost in results. We get lost in like I've got to prove myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:If we can just stay raw and enjoy what we are given and what we are able to do, that's where you're going to find your joy. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think that's a really good point because you know we talk about a lot like the reality of hunting and, like you know, my dad always says, like every year on facebook marketplace you'll see a young guy selling his stuff because he probably got into it, didn't shoot a limited ducks, didn't shoot 160 inch deer, and then you know that that wasn't successful and then he was selling all the stuff but like to your point, like if you can keep things now this is not near as significant as you know what you're talking about with the mental health and stuff but just in the outdoor industry it's like we paint everything, like it's just always going to be these amazing hunts, and it's like it's not always going to be like that and you know, if you can be thankful like we remember being thankful like the first time we shot uh teal, we you know the boat motor almost fell off and we got set up at 8 30 and we shot.
Speaker 2:We shot three teal between 8 30 and 11 and it was the great, like one of our favorite hunts of all time of all time we cried yeah, we cried, bro, cried dude I was I was laying in the altamaha river holding a 10 foot long tail on my shoulder with one arm on the boat, one arm waiting holding the damn thing up.
Speaker 4:Gators everywhere, bro, like everywhere, and when you're in the main channel there's big ass gators and I'm trying to hold it so to level it out, so tristan can put the a couple of the bolts that thankfully fell down in the bottom of the boat. It was as if somebody freaking did this shit on purpose. Dude, they were, they were lock nuts and oh my all of a sudden, just nothing's attached. Now how? The hell does that happen, just?
Speaker 4:vibrated out or something I mean, but all four of them at one time. Yeah, thankfully we found three of them and I was like I'll be damned if we're not hunting. Yeah, it's like 830. I don't give a shit If it takes us until 11, we'll hunt for an hour and then we're leaving, but we're going.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And I'll be some bitch. Three teal, and you would have thought that I mean we were laughing. We won the Super Bowl, yeah, we were laughing like a bunch of third grade cheerleaders.
Speaker 3:Isn't it funny that the worst days are the ones we always remember. Man I always I can't. Yeah, oh yeah, we shot a four man. You're like, I don't remember that, like I remember it's pouring down rain, it's 30 degrees. I'm freezing to death, you know you're wondering how is it not snowing out here? What are we doing? Yeah, you know, just like you said, I shot three ducks and I was miserable the whole time.
Speaker 3:You know what? I had so much fun, yeah Right, you know our brain is literally wired to like hey, the, the days that were miserable. We're going to remember, and it's so funny that some of the worst days I've ever had out in the outdoors always ended up the best days, and that I'll never, ever forget you know getting getting stuck in a storm and you know tides going out and we're stuck.
Speaker 3:We're beached up on a sandbar oh, no it just ran out of beer, didn't have any waters left, you know, like you had no food. It's we're miserable, but you're laughing the whole time and you're like I can't believe we're even in this situation you'll never forget that, dude.
Speaker 4:We can so relate to you.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, oh my god, hey, I've got a relate, I got a buddy of mine that every time I go fishing with something happens and my wife just just don't drown. Yeah, like, just look, stay shallow, because if you do sink the boat, at least you can stand yeah, right, I'm telling you every single time we're on the boat together, we're fishing a tournament.
Speaker 4:There's people like that, bro, there just is.
Speaker 3:We fished a tournament and my wife was with us this day. The night before the tournament we were going to pre-fish and my trolling motor died. I completely cooked, so I had to go get a new one. Had to rewire it, so I had to go get a new one. Had to rewire it. Rewire the whole thing, get out it. Weather turns. We're battling four or five footers taking them over the bow get to the fishing spot go to hit the spot.
Speaker 3:Lock on the trolling motor. Trolling motor has no juice From hitting the waves. Somehow the hot leg pulled out of the plug. So I didn't have my boat bag on me, I didn't have screwdrivers, nothing. I had to take trauma shears what we use, you know, on the ambulances in the hospitals to cut people clothes off and I found a dime at the bottom of my boat and I had to cut that dime into a flathead screwdriver and rewire my boat as it's. We're just getting crushed by weight.
Speaker 1:I swear to you, I swear to you.
Speaker 3:That's incredible oh, there's a will, there's a way and you get two red. So we rewired it and we had an amazing day absolutely amazing day yeah, but every single time I we've been fishing and started hearing this buzzing noise and we're like what is that? And I had a fishing dude, a graphite fishing rod, in my hand and it you know it's storms coming in. You get those pressure systems and I noticed that the buzzing gets louder if I pick the rod up. What I'm going? We're about to get struck by lightning cuz.
Speaker 3:So all the rods thrown in the bottom of the boat and just we hauled, we had to, and I'm like we're gonna die, we're gonna get, we're gonna die right now so then I start looking up, like you know, our fishing rods conductive and they're like, absolutely, they're graphite, you know, and I'm seeing pictures of people fishing rods getting struck by lightning and exploding in their hands and I was like, dude, we're gonna die, we're literally gonna die, bro.
Speaker 4:I didn't know graphite was conductive. I didn't.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah I, I didn't either, until I Googled it yeah.
Speaker 2:Wow, oh yeah.
Speaker 4:That's a really hard one.
Speaker 3:It was like a Harry Potter wizard.
Speaker 2:It was. I was like no dude we got to get out of here.
Speaker 4:I'm not ready for this that is so sketchy, oh my God.
Speaker 3:That was one of the most terrifying moments I've ever had in three foot of water, oh my God. I was like this is not good. But yeah, every single time we go fishing, man, it's a story. It ain't even a fishing trip, it's a story.
Speaker 4:That's crazy. Sounds like you got yourself a Jacques Cousteau or something.
Speaker 1:Oh man, oh man.
Speaker 2:So before we get out here, I want you to plug the coolers and kind of tell us about the company, how you got involved with them. Well, first, just tell us about the company, how you got involved with them, and, you know, just give us a Well first. Just let me say this.
Speaker 4:We were doing a podcast, caddy Corner from these guys and they had a corner area and the whole time I'm doing the podcast I'm looking over and going that's some cool shit, and I'm just looking at everything and I was like dry bags. Yeah, and I told Tristan, I said that's one of the first, cooler bags. That's one of the first boots I want to stop at. So I mean, tell them all, tell everybody about it, because you guys get some great products.
Speaker 3:So eco outfitters, like I said, is better known and operated. We're out of Ocala, florida. Our, our thing is, you know. So we we always say we have a top shelf product at a working man's price. We're not out here to take your grandmother's inheritance because you want to buy a 45 quart cooler. Yeah, so we kind of based upon that is is, you know, let's do quality products that people can afford. We do a lot of the custom, you know, b2b. We could do the cooler pads on the top. You we have our own drinkware line that we do all the laser engraving and everything.
Speaker 3:But biggest thing is is getting it out there and just having people fall in love with the company. Like we could sell styrofoam coolers and you, you meet us and fall in love with us. You're like man, I want one of the styrofoam coolers just because we love those people. You know, if we don't sell a product, we sell a relationship, because that's we don't look at people as customers, because people are people, you know. You know I want a relationship with these people. I want to be.
Speaker 4:Can you like customize your own cooler?
Speaker 3:so we you can customize them from the cooler pads like so that we do all the cnc engraving and stuff for the on the marine decking for the pads. Now if you wanted your own, like custom color cooler, and you want to order like 500 of them, we can do that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but yeah doing uh, doing extra molds and stuff are super expensive, but sure they are. Yeah, it's just, you know it's it's. It's a company that really does feel like a family. How I got involved was years and years ago. Uh, I was on duty at the fire department. We got an email and it was like hey, local company, they're selling all this outfitter gear. They're giving firemen 50% off.
Speaker 3:And I was like man, that's pretty incredible because, you know, like for a small startup business to do something like that, like that's not, that's kind of.
Speaker 4:How do you have the money to do that?
Speaker 3:That's know. I was like this is crazy. So I I actually reached out because this is when I, you know, I was fishing a lot of like professional tournaments and stuff and I was like, hey, you know, like I think it's amazing what you're doing for the first responders in the community. You've given them like basically at cost coolers and stuff. How can I get involved and help you out? You know, like I'll tell everybody about you. You know, I don't.
Speaker 3:And it was funny. I was like you know, I got, I sent the email and I got the email back and it was like you know, we don't really have any like sponsorship stuff, you know. But you know, thank you for reaching out. And I was like no, no, no, hold on you out. And I was like no, no, no, hold on. Like I don't want anything for free. I was like I know everybody wants something for free. I don't want anything for free, I just want to get involved because I think what you guys are doing is is really cool. You know, it's not something that you just see every day. And he and I was like you know, let, let, let's meet in person. You know, like anybody, nobody knows anything about an email. There's no connection Like I want to meet you in person. I just want to meet the guy who has a heart big enough to like give away his product set, basically.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:So I showed up and I was like hey, you know, like, look, I'm doing this fishing stuff and I want, you know, I want to do some guiding stuff and I, you know, I'm more than happy to buy a cooler, but I also, I want to be a part of this. Like, how can I be a part From that day? That was like seven years ago, eight years ago, and Kyle was like you know what, man, I can see your passion and I think you're a good guy. So, however you want to help, you can help. And he gave me a cooler. I showed up to buy one. He's like here, man, this one's on us. Just enjoy it and let us know what you like about it.
Speaker 3:If there's something you want to change, we can change, Because if you find a problem with it, then that means other people found a problem with it. So if we can fix something, then nobody's going to have that problem again. And that was something that was so cool to me is here's a company that they pride themselves on their products, but they're also going hey, give us some critical feedback to how we can, you know, mitigate some of this stuff and make it even better product Cause, if you did that for some of these other competitors, they'd be like, yeah, okay, Keep walking, you know like we've got the name already built, you know we don't need you.
Speaker 3:So the the humbleness behind it was it was just mind boggling to me, because most businesses, man, they're like you got to make money, you got to do you know all these crazy stuff. And Kyle was just like look man, I'm just here to be a good person and do as good as I can, and I just thought that was so incredible. And watching it grow from where it was at to where it is now is is really incredible. And and to kind of be a part of it, like I'm I'm not a paid position, like I've just volunteered Cause I just they're my, I've just volunteered because they're some of my best friends now and being able to watch them and see them succeed, I want nothing but success for them. A lot of people get jealous. These people are doing so good. All my friends, I want them to be super successful.
Speaker 3:Who are you? Everyone around me, because the more successful you are, the more I'm going to learn from you and the better I'm going to become.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm not jealous of you, I just want to, hey, man, like what worked for you? Cause maybe, maybe, like I can implement that and do a. You know, make better decisions, because life I heard a quote one time life is nothing but the consequences of the decisions that you make daily and I was like, wow, that is deep. You know, you know everybody's like, oh, I don't get the same opportunities. It's like no, you just don't make the same decisions. You know, that's why you should always surround yourself with wise counsel and people that are better than you and smarter than you, because then you're going to learn to make those better decisions, because we are who we become around.
Speaker 3:So you know, like, for me, I was at such a low for so long. Now it's like man, I got it. I want to. What are all these happy, successful people doing? That's what I want to do, you know, and I that's. I kind of found it through mental health, going through my own trials and tribulations. But, yeah, eco there, eco outfitterscom uh, the free shipping always. Uh, veterans, first responders, send them an email. You know they, they, they'll hook you up big time.
Speaker 3:So just good people, man just really really good people.
Speaker 4:No, y'all need to check them out, man, they are good people. And we sat and talked to you guys for probably 15, 20 minutes or whatever it was that day and and, uh, man, just wish you guys the best, wish you the best, dude, keep doing what you're doing, because it's it's stemming on greatness. I mean it really is and it's starting with you and and I just think it's so pure of what you, it starts with you and you've got this like process. You're putting yourself through as a person physically, mentally, and then back to physically the real tough thing, you know, with all that, but then you're still serving so many people. It's just what an inspiration, bro. You make me feel like I'm a busy person and I just got schooled tonight. Honestly, I mean just, you always make time for what you give a shit about right.
Speaker 2:I've been giving him a hard time about getting back to the gym consistently and he started, to his credit, about six weeks ago. But then he just got a black lab puppy, Ike. And that's consumed a lot of his evenings. Oh, it's sucking my soul, bro, it's okay.
Speaker 4:But she loves her mama. And when Tristan and I went out the other night and I filmed his hunt, um, I was like dude, this is the first time in like eight weeks that I have not been with my dog a hundred percent of the time, and I mean thankfully I work from home and everything. But you know, it was just weird and I thought, man, I hope it went good with mom. And I got home and she's like, as soon as I walk in, mom's like that's a good girl.
Speaker 4:That's a good girl and I'm like, oh yeah, let's go baby. I was like, all right, so I got a babysitter now, so I get a little bit more freedom, maybe get back at the gym. I was liking it, dude, it was really good. Uh, honestly, because, uh, it just comes down to like, you know, we talked about at the very beginning and just kind of close out with this is that there's that quote from like Young Guns about. It says the day you stop testing yourself is basically when they win. You know, and that's what it's all about. Joe Rogan talks about it all the time and everything, and it's truly that. You know. It's that Vince Lombardi quote about laying defeated on the battlefield. You know, after you know it's that vince lombardi quote about laying defeated on the battlefield of.
Speaker 4:You know after you know, giving everything you got. There's something about that, bro, and if you've got the guts or the ability to to really put yourself there, I don't know that there's a more happier, energetic, soulful feeling as a human being on this planet. There's nothing on this earth, no drug, no alcohol, no, nothing that can replace that. I felt that before at things that I've done and I felt like I was just full circle mentally, physically, just everything was going there and it's an incredible feeling if you push yourself there.
Speaker 3:And the hardest part of the whole thing is just showing up. Yeah, everything was going there and it's an incredible feeling if you push yourself there. And the hardest part of the whole thing is just showing up, just starting, because, like I'm telling you, I'm not some freak disciplined person. I hit that snooze alarm like four or five times every morning.
Speaker 4:I ain't ready for this. We all have our week.
Speaker 1:Superman, like I ain't ready for this. You know I ain't ready for this you know.
Speaker 3:But once you start, man, you feel so much better that you just started. Yeah, you know, and like you're not going to get the results every, you're not going to crush it every single time, but like just showing up, you're already bettering yourself. Just don't, don't get caught in like what everybody else is doing and how everybody else looks and oh, you know, they're so skinny and ripped, like who who cares? Yeah, like right, if it all you have to worry about is you and your family, your walk with god, if you have one. If you don't, you need to find it because it'll change your life. But none of that stuff matters. Yeah, you know not, and you know what. The people that are real and they're in that gym and they're ripped and everything, and they see you walking on a treadmill, struggling, they're going. Hey, I'm proud of you.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they are. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for showing up.
Speaker 3:Because it's so hard to show up. You're already better than everybody else sitting on the couch. You showed up. That's something I learned. Trust me, I'm nothing special. I am the most mediocre below average person. I promise you, I'm just trying to get better every day. If I can get 1% better every day, that's enough.
Speaker 2:Well, it's been inspirational hearing your story, man, and just from what we were talking about over TikTok the other day, I felt that way and that's why I thought it'd be great to have you on the podcast.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we'll try. You can probably throw some links in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no doubt the description and stuff and I tell everybody where they can find project ironside and you know the organization. Um, I know you mentioned eco coolers too, but um, yeah, uh hookaherocom, uh hookaherocom, forward slash project iron mine or just go under under our events.
Speaker 3:We'll have project iron mine under the event and it'll kind of give you a little backstory of you know where I came from, what the mission is, what we're trying to do and has like your little donation link um, all of that's getting funneled through hook hero and it's also getting dispersed to combat best of careers. So you can also go to combat best of careerscom if you want to make a donation through there. Any donation to any of these, whether it's through the project iron mine or not, it's, it's helping people, like it is literally going to help people. It's not, I promise you it's not coming into my pocket. It I wish, because that would be really nice. This is so expensive.
Speaker 4:Listen, count me in. I'm sold. Listen, count me in, bro I'm in we're, we're.
Speaker 3:It's not a dollar sign, it's a. It's a. It's a, it's a, it's a people you know it's a, it's a number of people that we're helping.
Speaker 3:So, um, and then eco dash outfitterscom Do you want to buy a super sweet cooler or some drink? Wear dry bag or backpack cooler or whatever, but show them some supporters. They're just amazing people, you know. And, uh, instagram, iron mind dot dot maddox that's kind of like my little fitness page thing. Or healing heroes guide company, which I'll send you all the links if you want to put those in. But I just wanted to say thank you so much. Time is is the most precious thing you have, and for you guys to have me on here and give me some of your time, I appreciate that so much because oh man time is something we don't get back.
Speaker 3:It's the only bank account we don't have a balance. You know that we can see a balance. We don't know when it's going to be up. So thank you so much for having. I'm very honored, I'm blessed Cause I don't feel like I deserve to be here, but. I really love meeting you guys up in Memphis and you know I love supporting you guys. I think you're just great people.
Speaker 2:So thank you so much.
Speaker 3:I'm truly, truly honored to be here and to be able to talk with you guys.
Speaker 2:Dude, that means a lot. Seriously, we really appreciate it and we enjoy, you know, podcasts just like this, getting to meet people and hear their story, and that's really the fulfillment for us, because yeah, you guys are giving us the right.
Speaker 4:I mean, I feel like you're giving us the right to, to, to who you are, and it's a humbling thing yeah, and this is like.
Speaker 2:This is such a passion project for us. It's like we're not quitting our day jobs anytime soon yeah so it's like these this is what we love to do. You know what? I mean so?
Speaker 3:that's the goal, man to be able to do this. You know full time, that that's you'd never work a day in your life. You know that that's the goal of man to be able to do this. You know full time, that that's you'd never work a day in your life. You know that that's what I want, I want to. You know, just same thing with what y'all want to do is if I just do this full time, this is what I love, this is what my passion is, this is what what drives me. You know, I don't. I don't want to go to work every day and be like man, I'm so distracted because there's so many people that I'm trying to help and do all that.
Speaker 3:But that community, just being around the community is what does it, man.
Speaker 4:It is, man. I mean we'd be lying if we weren't dreaming of, just like anybody else, just like anybody that ever wanted to be a singer in a band or you know, whatever it is. You want to be the best that you can try to be at who you are and what you do. Tristan and I just try to be very real with this podcast. Of course we would love to be. If you've got a lot of money, listen, Listen. If you've got a lot of money, there's a lot of things I can intelligently talk about that I can do with that money. Oh yeah, let's go right. But no, man, the gift is ours. I mean, you gave the gift to us tonight. Really, I mean we're, we're blessed and be being able to, uh, um, just have you on.
Speaker 3:I mean it was incredible, thank you hey, whenever, whenever y'all want to come down and snatch some frogs or catch some redfish or you'll get me a frog any time. I still have two gator tags. We can snag us a gator if you want.
Speaker 2:Oh dude, that would be sick.
Speaker 3:More than welcome. I would love to spend more time with you guys, so just let me know.
Speaker 2:Well, sounds good, man, hey shoot. Maybe we could work on a video idea to do a little combo hunt slash fitness thing.
Speaker 3:That would be kind of fun. I'm going to waffle house. Yeah, you could film. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 4:Hey, yeah fitness grand slam bear grills. This cameraman had to be in damn good shape to keep up with him gator run to Waffle.
Speaker 3:House.
Speaker 5:Grand slam.
Speaker 3:From the truck to the front doors. Ain't that far of a run?
Speaker 2:We can make it happen, right on. Zach, thank you, man.
Speaker 4:Have a great evening.
Speaker 2:We'll talk soon.
Speaker 1:I've been southbound. I've been hellbound Riding on a midnight train Going too fast. Now think I'll slow down Standing in the pouring rain.